Rating the three keys to victory

11th-ranked Kentucky gave Georgia its arguably biggest challenge of the year, but it didn’t matter as the Dawgs took a 30-13 win on Saturday in Athens.

Now. there’s an off week, giving the Bulldog Nation two full weeks to both hate Florida and likewise find reasons to worry about all that could go wrong in the WLOCP.

Here’s how the Dawgs met the keys to victory on Saturday.

Throw the physical back at Kentucky

Like Arkansas a few weeks ago, this is a team that prides itself on physicality and toughness., and that starts with the mentality of its head coach, Mark Stoops. To that angle, Georgia needs to similarly do what it did against Arkansas - rack up multiple tackles for a loss and do what you also need to do in order to stop a hard-running team- avoid third and shorts.

In all honesty, this game felt a lot like defending Georgia Tech under Paul Johnson based on how Georgia limited Kentucky on the ground. Sure, the Wildcats ate up time of possession to a degree, but the fact that they could not break a big play fell right into Georgia’s hands as it took a big lead - and the offensive line play by Georgia in the second half to give Stetson Bennett a lot of time had a lot to do with that.

Be two-dimensional

Auburn’s worst nightmare on defense came true last weekend when Georgia and Stetson Bennett was able to stretch the field. That meant that stacking the box with eight or nine couldn’t work, and Georgia needs to do that again this week.

Remember early in the game when Georgia got itself pinned deep in its own territory? It got undone when Bennett found Darnell Washington. That ended up being a sign of things to come as Georgia’s passing game, namely by way to getting the ball to the tight end and running backs out of the backfield kept UK spread out.

Don’t let Kentucky hang around

It’s a broken record, but the Wildcats are unbeaten in mid-October for a reason...as well as the fact that they’ve had just one road game. But this team believes it can win in any situation, regardless of the odds. It’s key for Georgia to put this one away by the time that it’s time to Light Up Sanford.

So here’s the thing. In the second quarter, it looked like Kentucky had life when it trailed 14-7. To me, that’s when I knew the game was over, because Kentucky was having to empty its playbook to score in the second quarter. It showed how desperate the Wildcats were, and Georgia reinforced its upper-hand with another typical out-physical second half of play.

Go Dawgs!